GN
58A/2008 dated Saturday 12th April : “It is hereby notified,
in terms of section 67A of the Electoral
Act that the Commission [ZEC] being of the opinion that reasonable
grounds exist for believing that a miscount of votes occurred that
would have affected the result of the elections concerned, has ordered
that a recount in respect of the Presidential, House of Assembly,
Senatorial and local authority elections be undertaken at the constituency
centres, dates and times indicated in the Schedule in respect of
the votes polled at all polling stations that were counted at the
Scheduled constituency centres.” Signed by Justice Chiweshe
chairperson of ZEC

Note the date
given for all the recounts is 19th April at 8 am. For the list of
the 23 constituencies see below. The Schedule gives the locations
of the counting centres.

Update
on Elections

Vote
recounts

Section 67A
of the Electoral Act permits any political party or candidate who
contested the election to ask ZEC for a recount of votes in one
or more polling stations in a ward or constituency. The request
must be made within 48 hours of the declaration of the winning candidate.

Zanu PF made
a request for a recount in 22 constituencies. ZEC ordered recounting
of the votes cast for these constituencies for all four elections
- local authority, House of Assembly, Senatorial and Presidential
and these were due to start in several constituencies on the 12th
April. MDC went to court to stop these on the evening of the 11th
April on the grounds of lack of notice, lack of transparency and
that a political party should not request a premature recount of
Presidential votes. There was an order by consent stopping these
recounts. [Note: a different point in the MDC application - that
there should not be any of these recounts at all - will be heard
on Tuesday 15th by Judge Guvava.]

But, ZEC can
also order a recount on its own initiative [no time limit stated]
independent of parties requests [and this was not disputed in the
order by consent referred to above]. According to GN 58A and ZEC
advertisements ZEC is preparing for a ZEC-initiated recount on the
19th April. Accredited observers, candidates and their representatives
are entitled to be present.

Note: Nothing
in section 67A expressly provides for changing the previously declared
result of an election if a recount produces a different result from
the original count. Some lawyers have interpreted this as meaning
that only the Electoral Court has jurisdiction to unseat a previously
declared winner on the strength of a recount. But, going by the
ZEC recount advertisements, ZEC envisage that if a recount produces
a different winner in a council, House of Assembly or Senate poll,
that winner will be declared duly elected on the spot, thereby unseating
the previously declared winner. In other words, ZEC regard the declaration
of a new winner in those circumstances as necessarily implied part
of the recount.

Presidential
election results

ZEC has still
not declared the results of the Presidential election. The MDC have
applied to the High Court for an order obliging ZEC to announce
the result promptly.

There has been
concern expressed about the lack of transparency about storage of
ballot papers. Section 70 of the Electoral Act states that once
votes have been counted at polling stations, ballot papers and related
documents are placed in sealed packets and delivered to the constituency
elections officer. The constituency elections officer stores these
in places designated by the Chief Elections Officer.

Destruction
of ballot papers

The Electoral
Act [section 70] states that unless an election petition [a court
application before the Electoral Court] is lodged, the ballot papers
and related documents can be destroyed 14 days after the end of
the “election period”. The Act says nothing about a
ZEC recount order freezing the provision for the destruction of
ballot papers and related documents. But as there can be no recount
without ballot papers the ZEC recount order necessarily requires
the preservation of ballot papers, at least of the constituencies
involved.

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